A new wave of AI wearables that continuously listen to and summarise conversations is testing the limits of US privacy and wiretap laws, CNBC reports. Devices such as Meta's camera glasses, Amazon's new Bee Frontier and Bee Eclipse recorders, and the Siri Recap feature on the Apple Watch Series 12 can transcribe or summarise speech throughout the day. Apple and Amazon say they do not store the audio, but lawyers told CNBC that many state laws turn on whether a conversation's contents are intercepted, not whether a recording is kept. Colin Zick of Foley Hoag said a device that turns speech into summaries could fall under broad definitions such as Massachusetts's, and that wearers, rather than manufacturers, might carry the greater legal risk. Law professor Daniel Pi said New Hampshire's statute could technically expose users to civil or criminal liability, though prosecution was unlikely.
Source: CNBC
Illustrative photograph: laptop workspace by Kari Shea on Unsplash. It does not show a wearable device or an incident described in this report.